Breaking the Cycle
by AlyxzanderGrey
Summary: She existed long before the world we know, she fought to her last breath, again and again, to spare our lives, but her time is coming to an end. Lifetimes were spent battling an aberration formed from the union of man and God, but the cycle is drawing towards its close. She burned like a sun, all these years, but when she burns out, the world may find itself in ruins in her wake.
1. Chapter 0

Okay, so this is the first piece in what i'm calling The Cycle of Elegant Madness, it will consist of atleast three fics, all based in the same universe, showing the advancement of three different perspectives. This one being of Sakura, the woman that challenged a god.

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Misashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo, so please support the official release and all that ballocks.

Chapter 0: Bound by Steel and Cherry Blossoms.

In the moment of madness, the few truths she believed in came to mind, bubbling from the wild, half-formed thoughts gallavanting through her mind.

Firstly: Her name is Sakura, that fact could never be argued, the name would be hers long after death.

Secondly: She had pink hair; no matter how much blood may soak in or dirt may stain it, her hair would always be pink beneath all else.

Third: That she was smart. She had always been one of the most intelligent children in her age group, and that had carried over into her samurai training. There may be some wiser or more knowing, but she was smart, you could never argue against that.

And Finally, Fourth: That she was no ordinary girl. She knew not why or how, but she had been gifted. Some other-worldly entity was playing with fate when it decided that this one pink-haired girl was the center of some great scheme, that she could be great.

It was that final truth that had put her in this situation...

The pink-haired samurai screamed as she ripped the massive katana from her midright, careful not to further damage any essential organs (or as careful as can be when ripping a weapon from your side).

The pale man grinned at her, disgusting face twisting into some sort of half smile from where she had ripped a hand full of skin from his face. "Still going? I don't think you'll last very long after _losing_ all that blood..."

Sakura snarled and spit a glob of the crimson liquid at the ground, "I only need to hit you once, _trust me_!"

She gripped her katana carefully and fell into a comfortable stance, already build chakra in her arm and legs, "I learned this special technique just for you, Arashi-_**sama**_!" she spit the suffix like it was poison and flew at the man, her legs a blur.

He threw his body into the air to jump over her seemingly simple attack, but gasped when she suddenly disappeared, "Impossible, you're not even a shinobi, there's no way you could move that fast!"

She materialized behind him with a grin on her face, "No, i'm much more..."

She spun too fast to be seen with the human eye, the blade in her hand shattering in the force of her new attack, "Sakura: tatsumaki!" The weapon shards danced along the edges of her made a tornado, sucking in the storm shinobi and slicing his body into ribbons of flesh and innards.

She girl landed and dropped the spinning shards of sword to the ground around her, more concerned about the fate of her old weapon than the wound gushing blood in her stomach. "At least I took you with me..." with a sigh she allowed exhaustion to steal her strength and fatigue to clench her muscles. Had the hole through her chest not done her in, the attack she had just used would have been enough, lungs impaling themselves on ribs, heart slamming against her sternum hard enough to crack. "Maybe I over did it..."

"Oh most definitely!" her blood froze at the voice, "You made it much to easy now..."

She tried to rise again, but her muscles were too damaged to support any weight, "How...how did you...survive?!"

"I'm made of energy, my dearest Sakura_-chan_!" he taunted her, she could see his shadow dancing around her, but her eyes could not focus enough to actually see him, "I thought you would have learned that from all the time I spent training you!"

She gave a weak snarl and slowly placed a hand on the remnants of her weapon, "It's...a good thing...I was...prepared..."

The man frowned, "What could you possibly do now, get blood on my shoe? Die on me?"

She grinned and coughed up another glob of her own blood, "No, one better!"

The blade shards glowed at her touched, preparing for a final attack, "Sakura: Baindo!"

Twin swords emerged from the remains of the weapon, the first a pink one that flew at the startled shinobi so quickly he had no time to dodge, the second a pale green that embedded itself in the dying woman's chest.

"Sakura: Sanpu!" she gasped out her final technique and the weapons stabbed into both combatants reduced to dust and scattered to the wind, leaving no trace of either there existence, or the original sword they had come from.

"Can I ask what the strange display of pyrotechnics is before you die? Or do I have to find out for myself?"

She chuckled and rolled over to face the direction his voice had come from, the vision already gone from her eyes, "I bound our essences together with my blade, so long as it exists, we will be bound, you and I."

"What nonsense is this!?" he snarled at the woman, kunai suddenly in his hand, killing her would be too easy, death too close as it was, but he could use torture if he had to, she had enough life left for a few more minutes. "We I fall, so shall you, and when you rise again, so shall I...So long as my blade exists, we will be trapped in this endless cycle."

"You can't do this to me, I AM A GOD!" she screamed at her, plunging the weapon into her side and ripping it down her chest and leg, "I'M NOT SOME SERVANT TO BE ORDERED ABOUT FROM LIFETIME TO LIFETIME!" he repeated the process to her opposite side.

"Not anymore!" she chuckled and gasped out a cry of pain, "We will fight, again and again, until the end of time."

He took a deep breath, "Then I must break your curse..."

"Or I must slay you..." she countered.

"One last contest then, between master and apprentice?" He gave her a small smile, too caught up in the memories of their past to think about her treachery.

"Between mortal and god?" She gave a weak smile and held out a shaky hand, the pink extented towards the direction she thought the man was standing.

He stooped and locked his hand with hers, "You always were a terrible gambler."

"And you have always had a terrible memory."

He glanced at his hand and realized he was dissapearing in a light green mist, "To the next life then?"

"I do believe so, i'm not long for this world..." she let her hand fall and a sharp cold enveloped her body, painful screams being ripped from her lips.

"Atleast you suffer some for what you've done." He glanced away from his dying student and looked at the forest they were left in, he would mark this place so that people would know about the significance of the accord struck between god and woman.

His chakra flooded the forest, warping it with twisted terrain and altering the animals inhabiting it to grotesque parodies of their former selves. Trees grew exponentially and lakes and rivers swelled throughout this new landmark, it would be dangerous, it would be deadly, but it would definitely be remembered.

With a wave of his hand and a shove of chakra, a crystal dome formed around the two and a tower rose beneath them, hiding what would be their remains from any prying eyes. With one final wave of his hand, he made a single door to the hiding spot of the locked warriors, with only a small hole in a wall to prove it existed in the first place.

He formed the key in his small pale hand and had it cast from the tower, it would find him, he was certain, eventually he creation would return to the hands of it's master, and then he would have all the time in the world to investigate the curse that the pink haired samurai had laid upon him.

"Maybe next time i'll have a tan!" he grinned at the thought and looked down at his now dead former friend, "You don't know what you've done..."

* * *

The pink-haired kunoichi threw her body into a crude backflip to dodge the pale man's swing, a handful of shuriken already in motion.

"You'll have to do better than that, sakura-chan!" the weapons passed through the man as if he were never there, and he grinned at her "my turn now, right?"

"Not quite yet!" the woman smiled and made a small one-handed sign, and a series of explosions signaled off behind him.

He turned quickly to find the source of the blast, and frowned when he saw her shuriken bursting into small balls of flames, "What're they suppose to do?"

She grinned and stood, hand already engaged in a new series of handsigns, "Nothing, yet!"

He ran towards her, but a new explosion began under him, taking his legs out from under him.

"So you're learning?" he sprung back up just as she made her final handsign, "I've had three life times to do so!"

"Sakura: Eien no bakuhatsu gijutsu!" she flung a new shuriken at him now, this one made of pure chakra, and he grinned when it passed through him, "I thought you said you were learning!"

"Sakura: Bakuhatsu rirīsu" she grinned, "I did..." an explosion began within the man, body consumed in an aura of flame and smoke. "You consciously use a technique to make yourself intangible, but if I were to surpise you, I could land one or two hits before you reacted. The explosion is inside your body, the moment you run out of chakra, it will consume you!"

She heard him laugh from inside the torrent of fire, "Yes, brilliant, in theory, but you see, my dear, I'm not just some shinobi, I am a god!"

The man of flames ran at her, massive orbs of electricity manifesting in his hand, "I can't run out of chakra!"

She tried to dodge away from him, but he flung his ball at her, and she fell to the ground spasming when it struck her in the back.

"Looks like checkmate, Sakura-chan!" with a final laugh he slammed the other orb down on her head, and once again disappeared in the fine mist of his curse.

* * *

"Why not just give up, don't you get sick of dying? I know i'm getting tired of winning." The pale man walked after the pink-haired shinobi who had just sprinted down the broken road. "Just tell me where the sword is and we can be done..."

"Every time I die, I learn more and more about how to beat you!" The whirled around and glared at the man, "And now you've walked right into my trap!"

A net of razor wire wrapped around the tall man and sliced into his arms, but he just smiled and let the nearly invisible metal rope fall to the ground around him, "Really, that's it?"

She shook her head, "Just watch..."

She flew through her handsigns and smiled, "Sakura: San'noarashi." she tilted her head up and released a dark green fog into the air above them, "Have fun!"

She faded from existence and left only the storm in her wake, "That's no fair!" he went to chase after her, but the green fog made walls around him and the forested area, spinning like a massive chartreuse hurricane.

"Is this some sort of trick to delay me?" he stood and waited patiently for the attack to finish, "I would like to finish you off some time soon..."

The giant tornado suddenly collapsed in on itself, raining down acid upon the man and the space around him, but he refused to be dealt with so easily. He drew his limitless force of energy into a shield around him and let it destroy the attack, acid exploding out for miles, reducing bright greenery into dull rock and sand.

"Please tell me you can do better?" she yawned and strode the direction he could sense her chakra from, "What happened to learning?"

"I don't need to anymore, you're already dead!" she appeared suddenly behind him, cleaving the log that appeared where he once was.

"Is that the best you got, we've been at this for century!"

She grinned, "You don't even realise do you?" she drew a set of shuriken from her pouch and flung them at him. He shook his head and stood his ground, but when the throwing weapons struck, they bit into flesh and bone, "What have you done to me?"

She grinned and readied herself, "The wire was laced with a chakra surpressant, after you wasted all that power on your shield, you don't have enough left for your intangiblity technique!"

He frowned and readied a bolt of energy in his hand, "Fine, I don't need it to finish you off, all I need is one good hit..."

Sakura dodged the projectile and dashed at the man, drawing her fist back for one final blow, but he was prepared.

The shinobi sidestepped her attack and grabbed her wrist, bending it around her back and pinning her to the ground, "Looks like I won again!"

"You understimate me, _sensei_!" she opened her hand to reveal the explosion tag she had been saving for this fight, "Goodbye..."

The blast hit both of them, Sakura went flying, nearly taking off her legs from the force and snapping the bone in her arm in landing.

Despite the pain, though, she laughed, laughed until the joyous sound became cries of pain and gasps for breath. She had done it, she had killed him.

"Excellent try, my dear, superb effort!" she felt her blood run cold suddenly, he had survived too.

He stood there with not a hair out of place, a big grin plastered on his smug face, "If I didn't heal myself, you might have done some serious damage!"

He chuckled and walked to the injured girl, "but I think it's my turn now..."

He bit his thumb and placed it to the dying woman's forehead, drawing a complex series of kanji and the pale, smooth flesh, "I've been studying your curse, trying to find a way around it."

He grinned when the skin on his finger knitted back together, "I found a sort of loophole if you will..."

She glared at him, "What have you done?"

"I found a way to completely erase your memories of your past lives!" He laughed at her shocked face and added chakra into the symbols on her face, "Any last words?"

"Just one..." she whispered and gasped for a final breath. He took pity on her, and knelt beside her in order to hear his student's last words, "check...mate..."

She spat a glob of blood into his face and slammed her chakra against it, knitting it into the same pattern he had marked on her, "all's fair...in love...and war..."

He screamed at clawed at the marks on his face, but they wouldn't come off, the last of her chakra burning brilliantly on his skin, "You bitch!"

* * *

The newborn child sobbed loudly in her mother's arms, hiding herself in the warmth of the light pink blanket doctors had clothed her in. She was completely ignorant of the gasp her parent's gave when they saw the strange symbol on her forehead.

A perfect, five-pointed star rested on her slightly large forehead, looking as if someone had inked her before presenting the girl to her parents. "What's the meaning of this?" her father looked at the doctor and the woman shook her head, "I...I have no idea..."

"Do birthmarks normally look like tattoos?" her mother gave a worried look as she held the small child, "I've never seen anything like it..."

"It's possible, it's not common, but maybe this happens in other nations all the time..." the doctor frowned, "I don't know if there's anything we can do about it..."

The woman shook her head, "She's going to do something great, this is just proof!" her husband looked concerned and took his place by her side, "Are you sure? She doesn't even have a name yet..."

The woman nodded fervently, "I'm certain, we'll call her Sakura, like that story they taught us back in school!" at that the man frowned even wider, "You mean Sakura and Arashi?"

"Yeah, the woman who out-smarted a God, remember?" the man shook her head, "I think you're confused dear, she didn't out smart Arashi, she killed them both so that he wouldn't take over the world..."

She waved him off, "Same thing!" she clutched the child close to her chest, "Sakura, Sakura Haruno." She smiled at her husband, "It sounds nice together doesn't it?"

He sighed and gave her a half-smile, "yes dear..."

The pink-haired girl skipped past the group of girls waiting outside the school, barely paying attention to what was in front of her until she crashed right into a dark-haired boy and knocked them both to the floor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"What do you think you're doing?" the dark-haired child snarled at her, "Do you even look where you're going?"

She frowned and slowly stood back up, "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to-"

"You must be some kind of idiot, just knocking down Sasuke-kun like that!" the gaggle of girls descended on her, closing around her like vultures.

When the horde had finally finish metaphorically ripping her apart, she stood there and brushed away her tears. She didn't understand why people were so mean to her, or why Sasuke would be so hateful for such a simple accident. But what she understood the least was why no one seemed to want to look at her, why everyone called her a freak just because she looked different.

Sakura took off her ribbon and let her hair fall into her face again, she would show them, she'd be better than them, everyone would look up to her, and never again would she be called a freak. They named her Sakura, for the woman that challenged a god, and she'd live up to her namesake, even if it killed her.

So with hair hiding her strange birthmark the girl strode semi-confidently into the academy with wet eyes and a smile, one day no one would call her weird, one day she would be looked up to, one day Sasuke would look at her without that distain...one day...


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Mashashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo so please support the official release.

**A/N If you are to find any grammatical error or spelling issue please let me know immediately, I'm typing all this in word pad so I have no sort of means to run spelling and grammar check.**

Chapter 1: Training Days

Sakura Haruno was a gifted child, all of her teachers told her so more times than she could count. Originally they had used the term paper ninja to describe her, the way she could piece together the most complex of formulas and bend it to any sort of situation, the skill she had with spotting any sort of flaw in a design, with an eye unusually trained for one so young, and the aptitude she had to learn anything that was beyond the reach of her peers. Iruka himself had declared her one of the brightest of their generation.

So they thought her a paper ninja...until they saw her fight.

Sparring was where she showed the most promise, while other students struggled to pick up the most basic of kata she extended far beyond it, where they would try to mould her to match the others, she was instinctively gifted. When others lashed out at her in training, she had skill enough to dance around them and in the split-second before she was completely conscious of what she was doing, her body would fall into a very complex sort of spance that none of her teachers had seen before.

She was a prodigy, that's what they had called her when it all came to light, she wasn't a paper ninja like they had started with, she was much to gifted for one to look at only that single facet of her personality. What made her to most ecstatic about her training, though, more than being treated like she was special, or being told that she was brilliant, was that only one student in the whole class was ever a fair match against her. The one boy who hated more than anything else for it, the genius, Sasuke Uchiha.

They were the only fair fight in class, pitting them against anyone else was like a game of cat and mouse, Sakura and Sasuke were more like snake and mongoose.

Where he was quick, ferocious, and strong, she was agile, flexible, and quick-witted. When he would break her guard she would dance between his strikes, and where she would hit back, he would absorb the blow or avoid it with a flip or roll to put space between the two. In their fights, there were no winners, every struggle was a tie, and every match-up went until they both couldn't move.

The only thing that set Sakura away from her other students, was that she was different in another way, she had what she called inner-Sakura.

It was almost like there was a whole other person in her head, and while Sakura herself was calm and gentle and sweet, Inner was dark and calculating. She was the force that guided Sakura when she fought, she spotted every weakness in the young shinobi, told her exactly how to dodge each strike, and the more she came to know the power guiding her, the more she came to understand her troubles.

Split-personality disorder, that's what she had read it was, where people would have other people in their heads. And the moment she thought she knew what her problem was, the more fiercely she hid it. The books she found dictated hospitalization of patients were split-personalities, said they could be a danger to the people around them, and, more than anything, if people knew about this specific difference, she would never have her chance to best Sasuke.

And she'd be damned if she let anything stand between her and beating Sasuke.

The pink-haired girl sat, once again, by herself in the far corner of the room. None of the other students ever thought of approaching the child, and she was _almost_ okay with that, Inner constantly warned her of the dangers other people could be, how they would be put in jeopardy if something were to happen to her, and a young Sakura was more worried about protecting her fellow shinobi then risking them, it was the almost that made her try.

In the end, it wasn't her that approached another, i was a young stuttering girl of six that introduced herself to Sakura.

* * *

Hinata Hyuuga, the heiress of her clan,a child that was as ostracized as she herself, and on near opposite sides of the skill spectrum.

While no one expressly said so, it was acknowledged that Hinata was towards the rear of her class when it came to combat, she was much too gentle to hurt people, Inner said she wouldn't be surprised if the indigo-haired kunoichi ended up a medic instead. Sakura had mad it a point to acquaint herself with the girl's doujutsu the moment she heard of it, and from what Sakura could understand, the girl could have been the top of her class should she have been able to us the Byakuganto it's full potential.

So when the child came to her at lunch and asked her to help the child grow stronger, Sakura was immediately taken aback. The pink-haired girl almost said no simply out of surprise, but bit her tongue when that dejected look passed over Hinata's face when she hesitated. Inner had told her friends would put themselves in danger for one another, but she never said anything about making them feel better.

It was that day Sakura decided to change things, the day she made her first friend, and the day everything changed for the kunoichi.

Hinata had been the "gateway" friend of sorts, once she understood better what friendship meant, she made a better effort to get to know her fellow classmates.

She found kinship with the few in her class that were as left out as she was.

Hinata had been the first, and through the girl she meant the lazy, but brilliant, Shikamaru, the only boy in the class that was ever a challenge for her mentally, and then again through her new male friend, she grew to know Choji.

In a moment of madness she had thought it wise to try to befriend the moody and distant Uchiha she had spent so long competing against, by the end of the conversation they had come to blows and had to be pulled apart by Choji and Shikamaru.

Shino had been a late addition to her small group of friends, he had had his own friends until one of their teachers saw fit to tell the class that the Aburame clan used bugs they kept inside their body to fight and gather information. After that no one had willed to speak to the boy because they were so afraid of bugs. Sakura, having never been the girliest of girls, had been quick to make friends with Shino when she saw how sad he was, having no one to sit with at lunch.

The group had thought themselves full until Hinata had asked permission to invite Naruto to eat with them. He was the most ostracized of the pack, and while Sakura herself would have made friends with her solely for making him feel welcome, it was her parents that had been so against it.

Near everyone in their small group was dubious about inviting the trouble-maker, everyone's parents always spoke so bad of him, but in the end it had been Sakura who made the decision for them.

"Sure, want me to go with?" and that had been the end of the conversation. while everyone wasn't as willing as she to go against their parents, they all looked up to Sakura. She had brought them together, she stood up for them, and most importantly, she would be the one to blame if worst came to worst.

The blonde had been initially wary of the group, those that called themselves family, it had taken exactly two lunch periods of goading to get him to talk, but when he did, they couldn't get him to stop.

When Sakura told her parents, she was quite sure her father was going to explode. He had screamed at her until his face matched his hair, but she was just as abstinate and twice as loud, he threatened her with punish, she said to do his worst. He tried to bribe her, she said she wanted for naught.

The two near came to blows, but they had managed to come to an arrangement. She was allowed to speak to Naruto during school time, but after school she was to be nowhere near him.

Granted he never accounted for that when she said she was playing with her friends the boy would be there too, and Sakura was entirely unwilling to enlighten him.

With six their group was finished, more than anything, the fact that Naruto was a member of their band of misfits scared off anyone else that might have considered sitting with them, but they didn't care. They grew as close as family, and as much as they hated being alone, they hated the people who had made them that way for it.

six years they spent together, hanging out together, eating lunch together, even sparring with one another, up unti the point of graduation, and the last turning point for Sakura Haruno.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo, so please support the official release and all that bollacks.

Chapter 2: Come, Break Me Down

Sakura grinned and waved over her pale, indigo-haired friend, "Have you heard from Naruto yet? He was talking about needing help with his clones for the exam..." Hinata shook her head and tried her hardest to quell the faint blush in her cheeks, "I think Shino said he'd help, but...you know how hard-headed Naruto can be."

Sakura nodded and elbowed the passed out brunette beside her, "Think we have enough time to help out Naruto before the test starts? He's walking with Choji this morning right?"

The pineapple-haired boy yawned and nodded, "Yeah, but you know how they can be, i'm willing to bet you they got distracted on the way here."

Shino materialized in the seat behind Sakura, "They'll be a while, I passed them on my way here. Last I saw, they were almost at blows with Akihiko again."

Sakura signed and massaged her temples, no one could get under their skin like Akihiko, they boy had come late to the academy, homeschooled by his parents, the almost kunoichi was certain he was on par if not greater than a genin, Inner was willing to bet he was near chunin.

The biggest issue was that despite all that he had lost a spar to Sakura her first day, coupled with the hatred the elder generation held for Naruto, it was no surprise he took an instant hatred to the gang.

Now whenever he could find one of the misfits alone, he would descend like a vulture.

"If they're late, i'm going to kill them." Sakura sighed and leaned back in her chair, "We all have to pass or we can't be genin together!"

"Naruto? Pass? You must be joking!" the girl snarled at the sound of that laugh, she had hated it for as long as she could remember, "Stuff it Ino, he could mop the floor with you any day of the week!"

The blonde-haired girl laughed even harder at that, "Please, I could take him with my hands tie behind my back!" she scooted her seat closer to Sasuke and said in that sick loving voice, "He's nothing compared to you, right Sasuke-kun?"

The boy in question just sat in his seat staring at the chalkboard with a nonchalant expression on his face, "Whatever." Ino nodded energetically and turned her head back to Sakura, "See, if Sasuke says he's nothing, Naruto doesn't stand a chance!"

"You voice is giving me a headache!" Sakura moaned and her head fell into her hands, "You're so desperate it hurts to watch."

The Yamanaka snarled and started to rise from her seat, but Hinata was quick to intervene, "Guys, the test is about to start, we don't have time to fight in the middle of a classroom!"

The girls nodded, "You're right...at lunch then, Ino-pig?"

"Whenever you're ready, billboard-brow!"

The Hyuuga instantly started waving her hands back and forth trying to get their attention, "No! I didn't mean...Guys!"

But the two were too busy glaring to notice her shouting.

"If looks could kill..." Shikamaru muttered and laid his head back down, "troublesome..."

And just as he started to nod off, the door was flung open and Iruka-sensei dragged in the three students the class was missing, Akihiko with a busted up nose, the other two with a black eye.

"Everyone sit down and shut up!" he shouted and and dropped the three boys, grinning to himself when they rushed to their seats, "As you all know it is time for the annual genin selection exam, all of you will be tasked with completing the assignment given, after which your instructors will appraise your performance and deduce whether or not you are an eligible candidate for graduation, any questions?" a few timid hands were raised but they were quickly ignored, "No? Good!"

* * *

The test had been divided into three parts, Basic knowledge, village history and ninja theory and all the other common pieces of knowledge even a civilian could tell you. The second part was only slightly more challenging, weapon throwing for the targets set up back behind the academy, they gave the students without weapons a practice set, but no one dared borrow, those without borrowed from friends, better to use slightly used weapons that the only dingy things the academy kept around.

The final test was the one Sakura had dreaded the most, not for her own sake, but for Naruto's, they hadn't had time to see if he needed help, and if previous experience was any indication, the final test wouldn't go so well for him.

Academy level ninjutsu was supposed to be simple little tricks all ninja should know, they required no elemental affinity, just chakra control and practice, which was the issue for poor Naruto. He had chakra to spare, all his friends knew it from years of sparring, but he had barely enough control to fill a thimble and that was on a good day.

If they had had access to the shinobi library like a full genin they could have tried to find some sort of jutsu to work around that problem, but academy students didn't get the same free access full-on shinobi got, so they were forced to work with what they had.

Sakura's name was called very early on, and considering that none of the students came back after they were tested, she had a feeling she would find out how her friends did until it was all over.

"We just need you to perform a bushin, as many as possible, if you can..." Iruka gave her a comforting smile and nodded, "begin whenever you're ready!"

Sakura casted her illusion and frowned when the telltale headache of genjutsu started, she never really understood why, but whenever she performed genjutsu or genjutsu was performed near her, she always got the strange headache and the pain in her birthmark that she had grown accustom to.

The girl refused to let them see her grab her head, so she gave them a quick smile and performed the release and gave a quick breath when the pain passed, "Nice job Sakura, very impressive!"

She grinned, "So...I passed?" the scarred brunette nodded and handed her the headband with a smile on his face, "Come back tomorrow for team placement."

Sakura grinned and did a little cheer before realizing she was still standing in front of the two chunin dancing like an idiot, "I'll...just be going now!"

**'**_**Smooth,'**_she signed as she heard Inner coming away again, _'__**what's next? Running naked through the streets? I'm sure the hokage would love that!**__'_ the pink-haired girl frowned as she walked down the corridor back outside, '_Atleast i'm not being unnecessarily antagonistic, I just became a genin, can't you be happy for me?' _she heard the voice inside her head scoff and if a voice could roll her eyes, Inner-Sakura just did _**'Why? You just got told you were a baby ninja, we both know you're much more capable than genin.'**_

"I don't know what i'm capable of, how do you know so much?" she murmured out loud and quickly glanced around to make sure no one had heard the sudden outburst, '_How can you know so much when I don't?I'_

_**'I acknowledge what you don't notice, every single fact in your head is at my disposal, and while you may be easily distracted, i'm always focused and I never sleep'**_ she heard Inner yawn, _**'Are we done, this conversation bores me.'**_ the pinkette signed and nodded. She could feel Inner-Sakura slipping away, '_I hate you.'_

She felt the force of her split personality rise to the surface again, _**'I know...'**_ and then she was gone to do whatever else she does when not bugging the new genin.

This was normal for Sakura, it had been that way for as long as she could remember, there was her, and then there was this other Sakura, a whole other personality inside her head, and as much as she hated it somethimes, she could almost consider the other voice a friend, almost.

She spotted Shino standing off to the side of the few other new genin waiting outside, and without hesitation ran over to hug him, "We did it!"

He gave the briefest of laughs at her enthusiasium (a miracle in itself), and nodded towards the door where her favorite Hyuuga was stumbling out the door fiddling with her new headband.

Sakura suddenly realized that she still hadn't tied on her headband and quickly moved to tie it on when she remembered the birthmark on her forehead. It wouldn't be intentional, but she felt that she would be disrespecting herself by hiding it, she had spent years with it plain on her face, had grown to like it, let people describe her with it. Without it she didn't quite know who she was, so with a grin she tied it in her hair like a hairband and grinned at her friends.

"How's it look?" the Hyuuga smiled and shook her head, Shino nodded in approval as if he had known the whole time what was going through her head. Her friends agreed with her decision, and that's all that mattered, that was until she saw Shikamaru and Choji standing by a very dejected looking Naruto.

"Guys..." She nodded at Naruto and the three rushed to his side.

"What happened Naruto-kun, did something happen with your clones again?" Hinata was quick to hug him and Sakura took the side opposite her.

From the look he gave them the answer was obvious, "I'm sorry you guys, I was really hoping we would all graduate together..." his voice cracked and all the sudden Sakura felt as if she could cry for her friend, he didn't deserve this, it wasn't his fault!

"Aww, look at the touching moment, looks like dead last didn't pass!" All her sadness suddenly turned to fury, "Shut up, Ino! Stop acting like such an ignorant pig!" She gave Naruto's hand a quick squeeze and gave him a soft smile before turning an icy glare on Ino.

"I'm ignorant? You were stupid enough to think someone like Naruto could pass!" Sakura cracked her knuckles, "You're going to regret that..."

"Bring it, I owe you a trashing don't I?" Ino fell into the basic academy stance she always took and Sakura was quick to fall into the one she knew only from unknown instincts. _**'She has weak arms, and she lacks a great deal of speed, when she throws a punch knock it away and hit back' **_Sakura nodded and made the universal, 'come at me bro' gesture.

Ino ran at her and swung wildly at Sakura's face, but contray to inner's instructions, she ducked under the swung and got nailed in the face by Ino's knee.

The telltale crack was proof enough that something had been cracked, and when she threw herself away from the blonde, the blood on the blonde's pants was proof enough.

_**'I warned you, next time you'll listen'**_ Sakura snarled and dashed at Ino, she feinted at her stomach, and when the girl moved to block, she twirled with all the speed of a tornado, her heal catching Ino in the side of the head.

The blonde kunoichi flew to the side and rolled to a stop, but she was quickly back on her feet with a snarl on her face, "I'm going to kill you!"

The girl charged again following the same pattern as before, but this time her punch was fake, expected the pinkette to throw it off, and grinned in satisfaction when her other had slammed against Sakura's ribs.

With righteous fury, the pinkette swung herself away from the blonde and fell once into her instinctual fighting stance, the blonde had only a moment's reprieve before the girl was on her, arms moving in a blur, striking not at her face or stomach, but her shoulders, her thighs, one odd, hard poke to the ribs.

Ino tried to throw herself out of th onslaught, but found she couldn't move her legs after all the strange hits the had landed, her arms refused to cooperate with her, and her legs had locked up so hard it made her dizzy.

"Goodnight!" Sakura reared back and let loose one good, strong punch straight to the girl's face, and grinned with sick satisfaction as the blonde sailed back into a gaggle of Sasuke's fan girls and didn't get back up.

The girls flocked around Ino, screaming insults and threats at Sakura, but the pinkette grinned to herself, she turned back around to her friends to find them short a member, Naruto had left when she was dealing with Ino.

"Where did he go?" Hinata shook her head, "He said he wanted some time alone, I think what Ino said really got to him, ya know?"

the pink-haired girl nodded and laid a hand on the girl's shoulder, "He'll come around, maybe we can convince Iruka-sensei to give him a retest after we help him learn some new kind of clone!"

The indigo-haired girl nodded sadly and looked over at the rest of their friends, "Should we do something to celebrate? I know we had planned on it, but it just feels sort of empty without Naruto there..."

Shikamaru nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Yeah, it won't be the same without our loudmouth..."

Choji suddenly smiled and clapped his hands, "What if we throw him a party to make him feel better, make it all about him instead of us!"

Shino nodded and patted the large boy on the shoulder, "Good thinking, Choji, no way he could be sad with all of us trying to make him feel better."

Shikamaru grinned, "Shino, you could make a bar sober, I don't know about all that!"

The bug user punched his friend in the should, "And you could put them to sleep, point?"

Sakura smiled, "We should all bring something, don't you think, we could have food...Oh! Now we're actually shinobi, we can buy alchol, make it a real party!"

Choji nodded ecstatically, "Definitely, Hinata, you have to bring you special ramen, you know how much Naruto loves it!"

"Don't you mean you love it?" Hinata grinned, "He likes it too!" the boy pouted and Hinata giggled, "I'll make sure to have plenty to spare."

"Spare? With those to around?" Shino raised an eyebrow, "You must be making an lake full." It was the way he said it so soberly that had everyone laughing as hard as they did, being stared at by their fellow students, that and the fact that Sakura had knocked a fellow shinobi unconscious in front of all of them with barely a scratch.

Which reminded her, "Hinata, do you have any more of that special medicine you gave my last month, i'm fresh out and I think Ino might have broke my nose!" the indigo-haired girl shook her head, "You burned through the last of my supplies, I can make some more though..."

"I'll love you forever!" Sakura smiled and hugged her best (and only) female friend. "You don't already?" Hinata joked back and made a scoffing noise, "And here I thought we were friends!"

"Don't you have ramen to make?" Sakura chided and poked the Hyuuga's forehead, "I'll be making the dango, Shika, you got the booze?"

"Yeah, it's too troublesome to actually cook!" he grinned and looked at the position of the sun, "Meet at Naruto's at like...eight?" the pinkette nodded, "yeah, I need time, I haven't made dango since his birthday last year..." nearly burned down the house in the process, but she wasn't going to admit that to her friends.

"Okay, Choji, you got the meat right?" Shikamaru asked and the kind boy nodded, "Yeah, i'll bring one of those grillers so we can cook our own meat!"

"So that leaves Shino with riceballs again, right?" Hinata looked at the boy who nodded, "Yeah, i'll do it."

So they separated to do their appointed tasks, completely oblivous to the dark-haired boy watching them the whole time.

* * *

"Am I supposed to carry that?" Sakura looked at the second large pot Hinata had sitting on the floor in the kitchen, true to her word, she had made enough ramen that even Naruto would have his feel, how the Hyuuga heiress planned to make it there was beyond the pinkette.

"Well...I didn't plan that far ahead, you dropped your stuff off with Shino right, so you can help me now...right?" the emerald-eyed kunoichi laughed at her friend's desparate expression and moved to pick up the spare pot, "fine, but you own me one."

"Duly noted!" the white-eyed girl chirped and picked up her own cauldron.

They only made it halfway to Naruto's before a problem arose, but instead of dropping something or leaving something all the way back at the Hyuuga compound, instead it was a very angry almost-ninja, as he lacked a headband, Sakura could only assume Akihiko hadn't passed either, which would have been a godsend if it wasn't for the fact it meant Naruto had to deal with him by himself.

"I heard you were heading to dead last's house, thought I would...give you a hand..." the way he smiled at them made Sakura sick to her core, "We're good thanks, you can go." his laughed sounded like shattering glass, "Oh, I think you misunderstood."

He flung a kunai at the Hyuuga heiress and the pinkette was forced to shove her friend of the way to protect her from the attack, unfortunately knocking the massive tin of noodles and broth out of her hands.

"What are you doing, you could have killed her!" Sakura snarled and stood protectively in front of her friend, the young heiress carefully picking herself off the ground.

"That was sort of the point!" he laughed again in that shattered tone and held another weapon, "They wouldn't let me graduate, you see, they thought I was a danger to my fellow shinobi..." he spun the blade around his finger, "but if there aren't enough genin to pass for tomorrow there will be incompletely squads." He grinned and for the first time Sakura could see the madness in his eyes, "If I kill you, they'll have to promote me to keep things even!"

He dashed at the girl with the knife in hand, but Sakura stood her ground, "Run Hinata, I'll keep him here, go get help!"

_**'He's too frenzied to think out his attacks, when he swungs bend backwards, let his momentum carry him past you, once you're behind him, strike his neck!'**_ Sakura nodded, Inner was her only choice right now, as much as she hated that thought.

When he sliced at her, she bent her body back in a perfect crescent, just as she had been told, the attack went right over her, and when he stumbled she swung her feet up in a handstand-esque kick, but he wasn't nearly as mad as Inner had thought.

The boy caught her ankle and kicked his foot out to knock her hands away.

She wrapped her other leg around the arm that clutched her ankle and like swung her body between his legs, grinning in satisfaction when he tumbled forwards with her momentum.

They threw themselves away from one another, but that had been a mistake, _**'look at his arms, he's building some sort of lightning-based jutsu, you can see the chakra crackling around him'**_ the emerald eyed kunoichi frowned and looked for something to draw the fire and grinned when she saw the spilt cauldron Hinata had been carrying.

The boy flung a bolt of pure energy at her, and she dove away from it, letting it continue on it's path to strike the pot. metal attracts lightning, the two pots were practically lightning rods.

He snarled and went through a series of hand signs and grinned when electricity just crackled off his skin. Something in Sakura stirred at the image of the boy covered in lightning, but she didn't say anything, now wasn't the time to cross analyze him, he was literally trying to kill her in what she could only guess was the most creative and destructive way he could.

He charged forward again, swinging with an animalistic ferocity, and try as she might, she couldn't dodge every blow. She tried to guard against as much as she could, but a fist hit her ribs and it felt like a knife had stabbed straight through her.

Sakura roared and dodged away from a new set of strikes, throwing her body into a complex set of flips to land on the side of the building above him. Glued to the stone wall with chakra, how she did it, she didn't know, and really didn't care, it gave her a moment's reprive.

"You don't have any real ninjutsu do you? You are completely reliant on your taijutsu!" his lightning armor crackled louder and he laughed again, Sakura's ears ringing at the sound of windows breaking. "With this you can't do anything, why not just lay down and die."

As much as she hated it, he was right, she was at the disadvantage, she had basic academy ninjutsu, nothing strong enough to stand up against him, and with that armor of his, she couldn't land a hit, she had to come up with something or she would die.

"Look's like checkmate, Sakura-chan!" he drew a kunai and launched it at her, laughing in the sick way he always did.

* * *

_"Look's like checkmate, Sakura-chan!" _She felt her head throb, something in the way he said it, or the words themselves brought a familiar pain to her head.

_"like checkmate, Sakura-chan!" _ she frowned and felt as if her forehead was burning, and it was like the world had slowed down for her, the kunai was moving at a snail's pace towards her head.

_"checkmate, Sakura-chan!" _The girl grabbed at her head and screamed, the pain was quickly becoming completely unbearable, she was sinking, not physically, but mentally. Something was trying to claw it's way out of her forehead and it burned like hot iron.

_"__**Sakura-chan**__!" _Jade eyes suddenly took on a foreign focus, hands fell from her head and her breathing changed, _Sakura_ that word had done something to her, the way he said it.

_Sakura_, she was Sakura, but right now, she couldn't feel like, it felt like she sinking into an ocean of darkness, clawing at the surface and screaming for freedom, but no one could help her. She was sinking into a riven so deep and dark that there was no foreseeable way out. But she was all alone there.

_**Sakura**_, Inner too up the mantle of screaming. A blood curdling scream echoed through her head with the force of a hurricane, it was all she could hear and it didn't stop her air, something in her mind shattered, Sakura could feel pain so deep words couldn't describe it.

Then suddenly nothing.

There was no Sakura Haruno.

There was no Inner-Sakura.

There was only Sakura.

And she was pissed.

* * *

The pink-haired girl blinked suddenly, and moving faster than should have been possible, she plucked the kunai from the air and spun it around in her hand.

"You don't know what you've done..."

Then she was gone.

The boy whipped around wildly trying to find her, chakra now exploding off his skin in frustration, but he didn't care, he'd find her and he'd kill her if that was the last thing he did.

"What are you doing?" Sakura looked at him boredly still toying with his weapon, "If I want to be found, then you'll find me, elsewise..." She disappeared and took shape again so close he could hear her whisper: "You're wasting your time."

He turned quickly and tried to slice her with a new knife, but she was gone.

"What are you doing, you can't move this fast, you're barely even a genin!"

"You don't know what I am!" the pinkette stabbed him in the side with his own kunai before reappearing atleast ten yards away, "You're an insect compared to me..." she made her handsigns, "and you're about to be squashed!"

"Sakura: Eien no bakuhatsu gijutsu!" she flung her hands out and three shuriken made of pure energy flew at the man. He ducked beneath them but the unnerving smirk never left her face, "Sakura: Bakuhatsu rirīsu."

The shuriken only just past him exploded, sending him rocketing at the girl with deathly force, but she just stood her ground, "Goodnight!"

She drew back her arm and swung to met his face. Where her arms should have shattered from the punch, it was his facial structure that buckled instead, chakra had exploded out of her hand when it met flesh, and just as powerful as the explosion, it struck him, if not for luck (her control) the blow could have exploded his brain.

"I'm not just some shinobi. I'm the greatest shinobi."

she let his body fall to the ground and tried to buffer her nails, but the sudden arrival of Hinata with a group of jounin stopped that with a single word. "Sakura!"

* * *

The pink-haired girl screamed and grabbed her head, the sudden clarity she had gained from him had loosened, that Sakura faded back into the recesses of the mind, sinking into darkness just as Haruno Sakura had. As Haruno regained control over her body, the true Sakura was robbed of her mind by the all-consuming darkness, and when only her personality remained, it resurfaced as inner-Sakura.

Sakura Haruno took back her place as the controller of her body and fell to her knees next to her defeated enemy, whatever force that had possessed her, nearly killed the child, but something in that power told the genin that it was intentional, that entity had reined in it's power, limited what it gave her body.

She looked at her hands and flexed her fingers, could she do those thing herself?

* * *

"Sakura, what happened?" Hinata fell beside her friend, hugging her close.

"I...don't know, it's all so strange..." She frowned and looked at her palms, all that power had been hers, was it still?

"At least you're safe, I don't know what I would've down if something happened to you!" Hinata sobbed into her friends side, "I was so scared!"

Sakura smiled distantly and stroked her friend's back, she needed to know if her body was still just as capable. Once she was alone, she would find out if she was just as powerful, without the pain.

"Come on, we still have a party to go to right, the other pot is still good..." the crying girl nodded and sniffled as she moved back over to her spilt ramen, "I guess we can still go, I hope the others didn't miss us..."

"It's fine, we'll have a hell of a story to tell!" she laughed and made her wet-eyed friend chuckle to, "I need to hear it too, what happened?"

The pinkette grinned and shook her head, "I'll tell all of you at once..." she kept glancing at her hands, they were constantly flying through the seals she had used when that power possessed her. "But I think it's the start of something great!"

In the end, no one got to hear the story, and the party was cancelled due to Naruto's absence, but the friend enjoyed themselves anyway, though all were very curious about what their pink-haired friend had done.

**A/N personalities in this story will be somewhat different because they have their friendships, but Hinata will still be shy when she's away from the others, Shikamaru will still be lazy, Shino will still be somber, i'm just taking the edge off some.**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N Didn't plan on finishing this so soon, but after watching a truly gruesome horror movie, I decided that instead of sleeping, I was going to finish this chapter. It's not that i'm too afraid to go to bed now, nope, not at all!**

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo so please support the official release and all that bollocks.

**Chapter 3: Tested, and seen sub-par**

* * *

Sakura frowned as she dug through her closet for a new outfit, her customary dress had been through the shredder the night before, and her friends had neglected to tell her so while they spent the night waiting around for Naruto.

She bit her lip as she searched for something practical, almost all she owned was civilian clothing, her cheongsam barely qualified as 'ninja' gear as it was. She'd have to find something new after team assignment today, it was time for change anyway, she was a genin, not some academy student. From this point forward she would be expected to defend her village and her teammates, she didn't have time anymore to concern herself with fashion trends and all that nonsense anymore.

So with that decided she quickly pulled on a pair of white pants and an old black shirt with only a right sleeve, the unfortunate aftereffects of a no-holds spar with Sasuke.

With an outfit decided on, she grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl on her way out and met Hinata on the walk to the academy.

"Did you see Naruto on your way home last night? I haven't seen him since graduation yesterday..." worry painted on her pale face, Hinata kept her gaze focused on the road ahead of them.

"He'll be fine, Hinata, he probably went out for ramen last night and lost track of time, i'm surprised we forgot to check at Ichiraku's before we headed home, you'd think..." the bubblegum-haired kunoichi laughed and patted the other girl's back, we'll go look for him after team assignments today, i'll get everybody to help, even Shikamaru!"

The indigo-haired girl laughed, "Good luck with that, only time I ever saw him do anything that involved real work was when his mom on him!"

Green eyes took on that usual mischievous glint, "Don't worry, I'll have a word with her if that's what it takes..."

And like the devil, Shikamaru fell into step beside the two girls, a tired look on his face, "Why can't they tell us our team assignments at a reasonable hour, like noon or something?"

"You'd still be tired if you had to get up at four in the afternoon." Sakura grinned as she chided the lazy boy, "You seen Naruto? We were going to look for him after school today..."

The boy yawned and nodded, "Yeah actually, I saw him just before I caught up with you, he was walking with Iruka-sensei, but get this..." he looked over at the two girls, "he was wearing a forehead protector, did something happen last night we don't know about?"

Hinata looked bemused and turned towards Sakura, "Yeah, Sakura, did something happen we should know about?"

The girl grinned and shook her head, "I won't talk until everyone's together, saves time!" and give her a moment to piece together what had happened, but she wasn't about to blurt that part out.

"The curiosity is killing me!" Hinata whined and pulled at the girl's arm, "Can't you just tell us the story already?"

The pinkette grinned and shook her head, "Waiting won't kill you." The girl frowned, "Says you!" she grumbled and folded her arms, the look on her a face akin to a kicked puppy.

In all honesty the girl had no idea what she would tell her friends, being possessed by some foreign entity wasn't normal, not for anybody. She had become a puppet, her consciousness locked away in the recesses of her mind and did thing that shouldn't be possible for a genin.

Her hands fell into the pattern again, the seals of the jutsu she had used while possessed, the had tried to look through her scrolls at home to find it, but it was nowhere in her library, nor her parents. That, more than anything, was proof that she had that she hadn't been in control. She shouldn't have known that ninjutsu, she should've died, but she did and she lived, and while she was happy for her life, she was more confused that she had ever been.

_**'Whatever it was, it hurt like hell...'**_ Sakura nodded, it had been like drowning, her own mind swallowing her whole and making her watch the world around her, _'What happened to you?'_ the girl asked her split personality, _'Did you have something to do with that other power?'_

_**'I...don't know, it was like...I was there, but I wasn't. I can't even really remember what happened, just pain, I figure if I was like you i'd still hurt, but i'm just an alternate series of thought, I don't really hurt, no like I did when...whatever that was took over.'**_

_'I have a headache...' _she hear Inner snort, _**'Aren't you supposed to be smart?'**_ the girl frowned and looked over at her friends that hadn't seemed to notice her distraction, _'It's like you're talking in riddles, I don't have a clue what you're saying!'_

_**'Just be on the look out, I don't want that...thing to take over again, I don't like pain, it's...wierd...'**_ Sakura herself snorted, _'I'm sure for you it is!'_

"Sakura?" the girl shook herself from her discussion, the hadn't heard anything going on around her, "Hmm?"

"I asked what was so funny, all the sudden you made this snorting noise when I was talking about training..." Sakura shook her head and smiled innocently at her friend, "Nothing, I was just thinking about something..."

"Not gonna tell us about that either are you?" the indigo-haired girl sighed, "I swear Sakura, something I think Shino's easier to read than you!"

The pinkette grinned, "I'll take that as a compliment!" and she continued on her merry way as if this was a usual part of her day, "Sometimes I worry about her..." Shikamaru nodded, "Lately she's seemed really distracted."

"Are you just going to stand there? I mean, we'll be late if you don't hurry up!" Sakura took off running for the academy and the two hesitant chased after her, there would be time later to deal with this, whatever this is.

The group had to fight the urge to laugh at the disgusted face Naruto made when he was pushed into Sasuke, Sakura was the first to fall, literally laughing so hard she fell out of her chair, and that set the others off, the five of them guffawed for a full five minutes before Iruka came in shouting for them to calm down.

Taking pity on her blonde comrade, Sakura took the seat between him and Sasuke and patted the boy's back, "Don't worry, I'm sure we can get you a bottle of mouthwash after all this is over." the look of gratitude on his face sent him into another fit of giggles.

"Okay everyone, settle down so we can do team assignments, as you all remember, I did my goodbye speak yesterday after graduation..." Had he? Sakura didn't remember a speech, but she figured they must have left as soon they had made plans for the party.

"So we'll begin with teams, team one..." She tuned him and retreated back into her head, _'Do you think I could do the jutsu I used when whatever it was took over? I mean, I was a puppet, but I still used chakra, I sorta felt it, you know?'_

_**'You'd have to test it, the puppet-master knew what it was doing, you don't have that advantage, if you aren't careful you could blow off your arm!' **_she nodded and looked at her hands again, they had started the handsigns again with her knowledge, this was getting out of hand.

_'We'll do it after placement, we'll duck out to the training ground to see if it works...' _she didn't wait for inner to respond because Iruka had reached her.

"Team seven will include: Sakura Haruno...Naruto Uzumaki..." the boy stood up and cheered, but the next announcement had him slamming his head on the desk, "and Sasuke Uchiha!"

She patted the boy's back and looked out of the corner of her eye at the pale boy to her right, he seemed completely unaffected by this development, and she wasn't quite sure if she should take that as an insult or a compliment.

In the end, Hinata ended up with Shino and some Inuzuka boy, while Shikamaru and Choji ended up with Ino of all people. All her sympathy went out to the last two boys, she hoped they had the patience of a god, and that they might go deaf, that would help too.

"We would like you all to come back after lunch to meet your jonin instructors, but until then, you're all their group of friends, but Iruka called her over and she left him with confused smile and a shake of her head.

"Sakura, if you would please follow me..."

"Can I ask what this is about?" she stood hesitantly by the door, she was almost certain she hadn't broken any rules lately, granted their were pranks that no one could actually blame on her and Naruto, but elsewise...

"There are...a few jonin that would like to speak with you, nothing serious!" He tried to pat her shoulder for comfort, but she shrugged him off, when someone important wants to talk to you, you know you done fucked up.

Nevertheless, she followed the chunin without another word, it would just make more trouble for her.

He held the door open to the teacher's lounge, the two from last night were sitting at a table looking at her, both male, both of them much older than her or Iruka. "Sakura, this Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuuhi, their going to be instructors this year, they said they met you last night, in fact."

Sakura nodded, keeping a nonchalant look on her face, "There was an...incident with a former peer, upset about not graduating with the rest of the class...Akihiko Tomo, I think his name was."

The red-eyed kunoichi nodded and folded her hands on top of the table, "Yes, your friend ran off to find help, but by the time we arrived, it seemed you had already delt with the boy."

The man smiled when the girl nodded, "We just wanted to ask...We came in at the tail-end of the fight, so we didn't get to see it all, but you used some strange technique, we were wondering if you could explain where you learned it."

Sakura frowned, how do you explain that some energy possesses your body and does things that should be impossible for a genin? _**'Tell them you invented it, it has your name on it, remember?'**_

_'Yeah, but a new genin coming up with something that advanced?' _the voice inside her head just laughed, _**'Advanced? You threw chakra and it exploded, doesn't sound all that complicated to me!'**_

Sakura bit her lip, if she took any longer they'd notice her hesitation, "I...I sort of made it..." she frowned at the suspicious look they gave her, "I did, my name's on it and everything!"

They shared a look and turned to her, "Would you mind showing it to us again?"

Sakura nodded, "We'll need to go outside, though, it's a bit explosive, as you can imagine..."

They nodded and followed Iruka and the girl out to the playground, but the child wasn't playing any attention to the adults around her. _**'There wasn't much else choice, you couldn't claim you found it in the library, you only just got access to the shinobi library, and you can't say your parent's show you, or they'll be questioned, either you made it, or you're a spy, and the second option doesn't have a happy ending.'**_

_'And what do I say if I can't do it?' _Inner just sighed, _**'Obviously, it's not very reliable and you don't tend to use it! You'd think i'm the one with the brain here!'**_

"Sakura!" she broke from another conversation, she would need to learn how to multitask, this was getting ridiculous!

"Yeah, sorry, got distracted..." the two jonin shared another look before focusing on the girl, "You were going to show us the jutsu, remember?"

The child nodded and pressed her hands together, _'Here goes nothing...'_

Hands blurred as she worked from memory, the adults were taken about by the sheer speed the child had, but didn't question it, it would be an afternote on their report. "Sakura: Eien no bakuhatsu gijutsu!"

She slowly pulled her hands apart until three shuriken of energy took shape between her palms, "Anything I should aim at?" her eyes flickered towards the three who just shrugged, "Um...the training dummy."

She turned her body and aimed herself at the dummy, _'How the fuck do I aim this!?' __**'I don't know, just like, push it!'**_

The pink-haired girl shoved hands towards the tree, the green ninja stars thudding uselessly against the trunk, "Sakura: Bakuhatsu rirīsu!"

The chakra rippled momentarily before an explosion rippled through the wood, blasting the trunk into splinters and felling the branches, "Damn..." she murmured and crossed her arms over her chest.

"That was impressive, can I ask you were the idea came from?" the smoking man, I don't think i've ever seen it before?"

The genin shook her head, "Well...um...I knew academy students couldn't just get their hands on tons of explosive tags...so it's like...an easy way to save money, I just use chakra instead!" _**'Good effort there, very convincing speech!' **__'You try coming up with something on the spot,i'm pretty sure they still think i'm a spy!'_

"We thought you should know that Akihiko is still alive, we took him in after you beat him, it seems the force of you explosion caught him right in the face, he'll suffer permenant deformation, but besides that, he'll be fine...eventually..." She watched the girl's face for any reaction, "You should know, he was refused graduation because the instructors thought he wasn't mentally sound, they believed another year at the academy would help mellow him out...the hospital will put him through rehabilitation after he heals."

Sakura nodded, "So the village has a rule against promoting the insane?" Kurenai grinned, "No, just the academy!" she laughed at the inside joke and even Asuma grinned, "Thank you for your time child, we'll be seeing you around, maybe you'll end up on one of our teams!" She really hoped not, the way they were looking at her, watching her every move, she didn't feel comfortable with them.

"Yeah...sure..." she looked hesitantly at Iruka, "Can I go catch up with my friends now?"

"Of course, run on ahead, Sakura!" they waited until the girl was out of sight before continuing, "She's hiding something, even I can tell."

The higher ranked ninja nodded, "She's too easy to read to be an infiltrator, she made it too obvious that she didn't know how to answer our questions..." the woman ran a hand through her hair, "She could be trying to protect whoever taught it to her, or she stole the scroll that it was kept in, it's too obvious that she's faulted."

The man nodded, "We'll make a note in the report for the anbu to have her followed, we need to be sure there's not another Orochimaru trying to ruin our new generation of ninja, remember what he did to Anko?"

The woman nodded, "I'll make a note when I turn in the report, we need to hurry or we won't be back in time to pick up our new squads!"

* * *

The girl yawned and laid her head on Naruto's shoulder, "How long do you think we'll have to sit here and wait? I was hoping to get some shopping down before I went home." the blonde laughed and shook his head, "You sound like such a stereotype!"

"Meh, I need a whole new outfit!" she said it with so much conviction that he could help but giggle, "I'm serious, I can't just wear something old now that i'm a ninja!"

"You would think you'd be more concerned with buying weapons instead of something as ridiculous as a new outfit!" Sasuke glanced at them out of the corner of his eye, "Most of us have something more useful to do with our time!"

"Do you have some sort of complex?" the girl sat up and stared at the boy, confused expression painted on her face, "I mean, I don't know what I did to upset you, but I'm sorry..."

They had all been there for nearly an hour longer than everyone else, even Iruka had already left. She'd be lying if she said her patience wasn't wearing thin, "He's just mad cause we've been her for hours and our sensei still hasn't come!"

The dark boy huffed and folded his arms over his chest, "You've got a point, if he doesn't come soon, all the good stores will be closed!"

"You are obsessed!" the energetic boy laughed and grabbed an eraser off the white board and stuck it on top of the door.

"There's no way a jonin will fall for that, are you some kind of idiot?" Sasuke was a cross between bemused and disgusted, "Only you would fall for something like that!"

The blonde shinobi opened his mouth to yell at the raven-haired boy, but bit his lip when he heard the door slide open, and a thud echo through the silent room, "Oh!"

Three sets of eyes flicked to the grey haired man standing in the door way with an eraser on his head, "See, who's the idiot now, Sasuke-teme!"

"There's no way a real jonin would've gotten hit by that!" Their apparent sensei made a very offended noise and look over the three before him, "My first impression is: I hate you!" he said all of this with the most cheerful sounding voice he could muster.

* * *

"Why don't we get to know each other..." he prompted and took a seat in front of his young students, "Names, likes, dislikes, dreams, all that important stuff."

"Um...sensei...could you give us an example? I'm a little bit confused..." Sakura gave him an innocent smile and scratched the back of her head.

He sighed and looked skyward, "Well...My name is Hatake Kakashi, there are...a few things I like, but there are also several things I dislike, and of dreams...well...I have a few hobbies, nothing worth mentioning...and I don't really have any dreams..."

The genin shared and look and snorted in unison at their teacher _'All we learned is his name!'_ Sakura was sure the boys thought the same, but they didn't have another voice to answer theirs, _**'He's a shinobi, the only thing you learned about him was his name, thing logically, you're meeting potential threats that could mean to kill you, trust can't just be freely given, ninjas are creatures of deception.'**_

_'A samurai will face you on the battlefield, a ninja will poison your water supply.'_ she could feel her inner self nodding in agreement, _**'Don't forget that, learn from his example.'**_

"Oi, pinky!" the silver-haired man flicked her forehead and she looked around like he had interrupted a nap, she really needed to work on that.

"I said it was your turn!" she nearly laughed at her mistake, "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have gotten distracted, what did I miss?"

"knuckle-head like ramen, moody is an avenger, go." Both boys voiced their outrage, and Sakura sweet-dropped at the sight. "I'm afraid i'm not anything near as interesting, sensei, my name is Haruno Sakura, I like to do all these boring things, and I hate being bothered when I do. I spend all my free time with people you probably wouldn't care to hear about, and all I dream of is being helpful to my friends, sorry to disappoint!"

The elder ninja nearly laughed at the child, if he wasn't so experienced, he would have thought nothing of her explanation, she had answered the question and danced around it in such a way that neither of her teammates thought to question her answer, she would have a fine career as a lawyer.

Ninjas needed to be more than just smart, though. She might make a fine theorist, maybe a good spy, on any other team she might have excelled, gone on to be the star of the team, but she was paired with two legends in the making, it was almost sad really.

* * *

Kakashi had dealt with Naruto the quickest, the boy had come at him head on, and though he had come up with a single intelligent strategy at the last moment, he fell for the simplest trap and ended up hanging from a rope by his feet.

He had thought Sakura was incapacitated by a genjutsu before he came after Sasuke, but it seemed nothing was ever so simple.

He had no idea of the way genjutsu seemed to effect Sakura, of how the massive migraine sat in the moment he cast it, and when she fell to the ground, it was because the personality inside her head snapped the weak jutsu like a toothpick. No, he would never guess any of that about the small pink-haired girl, and she wouldn't be one to tell him.

Sasuke had fought Kakashi quite brilliantly, going so far as to use a jutsu that should have been impossible for a fresh genin, simply for the chakra it burned, but the boy had used it and continued fighting. In the end, though he was just a head sticking out of the ground.

The one-eyed man bent over to look somewhat eye-to-eye with the boy when he heard the whizz of shuriken behind him.

He quickly substituted himself with a log and hid himself in a tree near Sakura, but the girl had sensed him, extending his senses he could feel the chakra she was projecting outwards to give herself awareness. It was commendable, if it wasn't for the fact it burned her chakra like a match would a pool of oil.

"You won't last long like that, maybe five minutes before you have to give up!" he taunted her, going so far as to before her, only a few years between with arms wide, "Why don't you go ahead, I could try another genjutsu if you like?"

Her innocent face morphed into a snarl and he saw her hands blur into an unfamiliar set of handsigns, he was half-tempted to use the sharigan, if only to learn the new technique, but thought better of using something from a fresh academy graduate.

"Sakura: Eien no bakuhatsu gijutsu!" she waved one arm at the man and a set of five shuriken of bright blue flew at the man in a deadly circle. He readied a kunai to block them all but she made another quick handsign and grinned a twisted grin, "Sakura: Bakuhatsu rirīsu."

An explosion of pure chakra struck him plain in the face, sending him flying back over Sasuke's head, but he righted himself quickly and skidded to his feet with a kunai in hand, "impressive, if you had tried to kill me, you would've waited until it was right in my face before it exploded, might have even got a bell out of it..."

The girl frowned and brandished her own kunai, "guess i'll just have to try harder..." she tried to pull on what she could remember from when the thing had taken control of her body, but there had been only one jutsu, and she'd already wasted that...

_**'Remember how she moved so fast it was like teleporting...she did that with your body, do you remember how it felt?' **_She shook her head, _'No...it's fuzzy, maybe...it pulled my chakra around, it was like the chakra moved before my body if that makes any sense, do you think that's a legitamite technique?'_

_**'It's either try, or go back to the academy!'**_ Sakura nodded and reached for her chakra, flinging it towards him in massive blob.

"What are you doing?" he screamed at her and tried to run and stop her, but it was too late, her body ripped itself apart molecule by molecule and reformed right behind him, the owner of those pieces screaming bloody murder.

He caught her when she fell and dropped his kunai, "Sakura...Sakura can you here me?"

"Kakashi-sensei?" she whispered and curled herself into as tiny a ball as she could against his chest, "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I got you, are you okay? Did that hurt?"

She she turned her head to him and moving faster than he would've thought possible in this state, she pressed a kunai to his throat, "Like a bitch, but it looks like I got you!"

He laughed and substituted himself again, letting her fall to the ground with a soft thud and dropping her weapon in the process, "If you weren't such an idiot, that might have worked, but you nearly killed yourself just now, I don't you'll be able to move..."

The alarm went off just then and both genin groaned, the first half was over, and they both had come out worse for wear with nothing to show from it.

* * *

All three genin sat with their backs to posts, Naruto being forcefully held there by ninja wire with a large bump on the top of his head. While the others had been fighting, he had stolen a bento and feasted until the others had come to collect him, Kakashi had been none too pleased.

Sakura sat there hugging her arms across her chest, her pathetic attempt to copy the puppeteer had left her in an immeasurable amount of pain, it felt like her body her been stretched and shrink all at the same time, and her whole body had been covered in kunai like a fucking porcupine. She wanted to scream until she couldn't talk and sob her eyes out, but the better, rational part of her brain was keeping her focused.

"I don't know what to make of you all, you're all a bunch of idiots!" He rounded on Sakura first, "Nearly killing yourself to try and fight someone more than twice your age, and more than triple your skill!"

He turned to Sasuke next with a glare in his one eye, "Abandoning your teammates..." and he turned to Naruto with a scathing tone, "And leaving the others to their fate while you stuff your face!"

"You all get one more chance, after lunch i'll come back and you can try again, but this assignment will be twice as hard, be ready." With one last angry look at the trio, he shushined away to watch them from across the clearing. The next few minutes would determine everything, if they couldn't work together in some way, there was no chance they could be a real team.

The pink-haired kunoichi waited until she thought the man was a safe distance away before she turned to the tied up blonde, "Hold still, i'll cut you loose..." she sliced through the ninja wire with a quick swing and went to grab bandages from her bag with shaking hands, "I think I have something here for your head..."

Sasuke walked over and took the ointment and bandages the girl held and turned towards their teammate, "go ahead and eat Sakura, you're in way worse shape than I am, i'll help Naruto." she hesitanted for a moment, but when he seemed to understand what he needed to do, she opened the box Kakashi had supplied and took a bite or herself before stuffing a bite into Sasuke's mouth.

"Here, i'll feed us both while you help Naruto."

Kakashi just stared at them, aside from how creepy the whole scene was, it was a complete one-eighty rom what they were before, if they acted more like that, they could stand a chance as a team, he highly doubted it would last.

Kakashi suddenly appeared behind the awkward trio, "What do you think you're doing?"

The three instantly separated and stared evenly at the man, "We were...just trying to help each other get ready for the rest of the test...I knew Naruto was more hurt than the rest of us, so I tried to help heal him..."

"I knew Sakura was in pain, so I tried to take over for her..." Sasuke murmured and looked away, "Her hands are shaking..."

The silver-haired man frowned under his mask and pulled out a kunai, "Fine, I guess i'll give you the rest of your exam then..." he grabbed Sakura and held her against his chest, knife pressed to so hard to her neck that beads of blood were running down her neck.

"Kakashi-sensei..." trimbling hands gripped his forearm, jade eyes lifted to meet hsi gaze. "Please, don't kill me..."

"Naruto!" he barked, the child in question instantly standing up painfully straight, "Your new mission...kill Sasuke or Sakura dies!"

The boys looked at each other incredulously, hard gazes turning on their sensei, "You can't mean that, there's no way i'd kill a teammate, believe it!"

The raven-haired boy nodded, "You can't expect us to start killing each other, I thought we were supposed to try to work together, not slaughter each other!"

Sakura frowned and gripped his forearm, "Just...finish me if you have to, but leave them alone, no one should have to die for me..."

The man sighed and tossed the girl to who teammates, both of which supported her and rushed to try and stop the bleeding at her neck, "The whole point of this excercise was to teach you a very important lesson, something my sensei taught to me."

He waited until the girl had stopped bleeding and that all their angry, tired, and somewhat crazed glares were focused on him, "Someone who goes against the mission is trash, but a person who abandons their teammates are less than trash!" The three students looked at one another and shared that same frown, "You all were so determined to get a bell for yourselves, you completely missed the point of the exercise, teamwork!"

"But you said one of us would have no choice but to go back to the academy!" the blonde shouted, but it was Sakura that explained, "he wanted to create a situation that would make it harder for us to work together to see if we could work around it..."

"And you all failed that spectacularly!" he snarled and crossed his arms to look at him, "I really hate to say this, but you three...pass..."

"What!" the single word echoed between the students, incredulous looks passing between students and master, "As badly as you all acted in the first part, you were willing to die to help each other. And as terribly as you all did in that situation, you showed you have the potential to work together...and for that I will pass you all on this exam. Congradulations all, you pass by the skin of your teeth!"

The genin were torn between ecstatic and depressed, they had won, and lost at the same time.

"We'll all meet up tomrrow for a series of D-ranked missions, don't worry. I'll make sure you have plenty to help you all work on your teamwork!"

The trio winced but he had already disappeared and left them to make their own way home.

No one said a word, but one look was shared.

Disappointment.

The same look their sensei had given them.

They same look they would see in each other.

A bittersweet victory indeed.


End file.
